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Forte II Mod?


rplace

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Anyone ever taken a Forte II apart? I'm wondering if the front/motor board is attached and can easily be removed or is it part of the structure of the cabinet? If somebody wanted at Forte II as just a bass bin only would it make sense to make a new front panel and move the woofer to the center of the cabinet or simply remove all the XO, mid/tweet horns and drives and seal up the holes some how? Would removing those parts change the volume enough to warrant some sort of "stuff" to keep the internal volume the same?

 

Ideally, it would be easy to swap out the stock and future bass bin only options should I want to return them to a standard configuration.

 

Good or bad idea?

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1 hour ago, rplace said:

Ideally, it would be easy to swap out the stock and future bass bin only options should I want to return them to a standard configuration.

 

Could you achieve your bass box goal by simply unplugging the midrange and tweeter drivers and insulating the wires? Then you won't need to plug any holes, and it will be easy to retrofit in the future.

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8 minutes ago, Khornukopia said:

 

Could you achieve your bass box goal by simply unplugging the midrange and tweeter drivers and insulating the wires? Then you won't need to plug any holes, and it will be easy to retrofit in the future.

 

I guess so....but then no real project. I already did this with my "never to be touched" bought new F2s...and liked the results. 

 

I'm thinking if I pick up a beater pair, freshen up the cabs a bit and sell off the mids/highs I might be ahead of building a forte/Cornwall type bass only bin pair from scratch. Forte dimensions work nicely for my room size and HF horn placement.

 

Obviously if I sell the parts, converting back to normal is not as pressing.

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1 hour ago, rplace said:

Anyone ever taken a Forte II apart? I'm wondering if the front/motor board is attached and can easily be removed or is it part of the structure of the cabinet? If somebody wanted at Forte II as just a bass bin only would it make sense to make a new front panel and move the woofer to the center of the cabinet or simply remove all the XO, mid/tweet horns and drives and seal up the holes some how? Would removing those parts change the volume enough to warrant some sort of "stuff" to keep the internal volume the same?

 

Ideally, it would be easy to swap out the stock and future bass bin only options should I want to return them to a standard configuration.

 

Good or bad idea?

you can remove the horns or not your choice leaving them in would save you the effort of building blanks out of plywood to fill them along with the time that will take. Extra space in a woofer cabinet will help, more volume being better than less. If you replace the passive with a plywood blank and seal the cabinet you can then stuff it full with fiberglass to make a sealed sub with a deeper extension and better punch.

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if you like reflex sound over sealed then you can simply retune your Forte passive with some added dead weight on the passive radiators in the centre (inside) use large steel flat washers tagged on with a very small amount of five minute epoxy glue and add 2.5 ounces of weight, this will tune them lower so you will get deeper base response. You can remove the additional weight easily any time you want to convert the speaker back to 100% stock if you choose to resell later.

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I've tried several so far and like the forte 2 over Khorn, LS, Belle, Onken....want to A/B them with my open baffle. I had no idea about lower with more weight. I figured the internal volume and passive determined the tuning. Any explanation, there?

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21 minutes ago, rplace said:

I've tried several so far and like the forte 2 over Khorn, LS, Belle, Onken....want to A/B them with my open baffle. I had no idea about lower with more weight. I figured the internal volume and passive determined the tuning. Any explanation, there?

This is how you tune a passive you adjust the passive mass with a reflex vent you extend the length of the vent to lower the tuning it's the exact same thing adjust the moving mass up or down. No magic here you need to remember that the driver in the box is the ultimate determinate of how low you can tune the system no free lunch ever but this is as close as you will get to a free bass sandwich.

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Not the best idea, not the worst.  Horns and drivers need to stay to preserve the volume. 

 

Why not just buy a copy of BassBox or Eminence design software and build a real subwoofer?  One with high output and low distortion down to 20 Hz or less? 

 

Madisound and PE have gonzo subwoofer kits cheap enough to build 2.

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all the mid horn and driver does (in the cabinet) is to reduce the internal cabinet volume by a small amount. More volume will improve bass extension in this situation not by very much though. sub 10% shifts in internal volume are small so far as tuning goes. Stuffing a cabinet with top quality high density fiberglass will yield an apparent increase of cabinet volume (as seen by the driver) of approximately 22% or so. Double the internal volume of a Heresy add a vent and you now have a Forte for all intent and purposes. Forget the vent go sealed and you will have the ability to fully damp the cabinet volume and extend bass response and more importantly loading to below that of a Forte or Forte ll.

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1 hour ago, JohnA said:

Not the best idea, not the worst.  Horns and drivers need to stay to preserve the volume. 

 

Why not just buy a copy of BassBox or Eminence design software and build a real subwoofer?  One with high output and low distortion down to 20 Hz or less? 

 

Madisound and PE have gonzo subwoofer kits cheap enough to build 2.

Sounds like he wants more than a sub actually a woofer section for possibly a 2-way speaker so probably needs to maintain the higher mid frequencies to meet a horn cut off I'm assuming?

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On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 11:12 AM, rplace said:

Anyone ever taken a Forte II apart? I'm wondering if the front/motor board is attached and can easily be removed or is it part of the structure of the cabinet? If somebody wanted at Forte II as just a bass bin only would it make sense to make a new front panel and move the woofer to the center of the cabinet or simply remove all the XO, mid/tweet horns and drives and seal up the holes some how? Would removing those parts change the volume enough to warrant some sort of "stuff" to keep the internal volume the same?

 

Ideally, it would be easy to swap out the stock and future bass bin only options should I want to return them to a standard configuration.

 

Good or bad idea?

I think if you're trying to preserve the speaker you should just take @Khornukopia advice, simply disconnect the horns and leave them be. If you find a sweet deal on a pair of beater cabinets that you don't care about hack away, it would probably be better if the woofer was up higher closer to the horn. 

 

 

KPT_325.jpg

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24 minutes ago, jjptkd said:

Sounds like he wants more than a sub actually a woofer section for possibly a 2-way speaker so probably needs to maintain the higher mid frequencies to meet a horn cut off I'm assuming?

 

Yes, 2-way active. 8" full range driver in huge horn up top 150-20k, crossing around 200-300.

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